


To Establish Ties

by xensilverquill



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternative Title: Rehabilitating Your Corrupted Gem, Corrupted!Jasper, Gen, Redemption
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-05-01 15:47:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14523933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xensilverquill/pseuds/xensilverquill
Summary: “There has to be a way to heal you; there’s gotta be. I just have to figure out how.” He glanced sheepishly at her. “Think you’ll ever let me take a look at your gem?”“MAAAAAAAAW!!!”“That’s fine, that’s fine! We can wait until you’re ready?”“Grrr…”“Or never. Never works, too.”[Steven is back at it again with rehabilitating corrupted Gems. Only this time, he may be in a bit over his head.]





	To Establish Ties

**Author's Note:**

> [I originally wrote this a year-and-a-half ago for a fanzine, so I thought I'd publish it. Written pre-Season 4, so bear that in mind if there are any disparities between this and the canon. Hope you like!]

“Hey there! Don’t know if you remember me, but I’m— _Oh geez!_ ”

The boy’s bubble encapsulated him only half a second before the corrupted Gem rammed into him. Snarling, she bucked her teal horns and hit the bubble with a loud _bap!_ like a dodgeball to the face. The bubble went flying like one, too. Steven screamed as he ricocheted off the jagged rocks, and he would later wonder how he escaped the encounter without a severe case of whiplash.

Not for the first time that day, he thought releasing Jasper was probably _not_ his best or brightest idea.

“Ugh…” he moaned as his bubble rolled to a stop, all ruddy and gritty with Kindergarten dirt. He clutched his swimming head as he sat up. Vertigo had his brains still spinning like a top when the Gem beast charged at him again in a blur of shaggy beige mane and tangerine fur. She leaped and latched onto the bubble like an oversized kitten with an equally oversized pouncing toy.

“Stop!” he cried out as they went rolling together. “Stop it! I just wanna help you!”

Furious growling was the beast’s only reply. The wild quartz immediately began biting at the bubble. Her fangs and horns jabbed at the rosy hardlight, and her claws scraped and squeaked against the slippery surface, sending up sparks in their wake.

Hellbent as she was on getting at Steven, she did not seem to notice they were rolling down an increasingly steep embankment. The ball gained quickly gained momentum, and they sped faster and faster until they were a pink-and-orange blur and—

With a sharp _crack!_ and a cut off roar, Jasper’s spine connected squarely with the hard canyon wall. She broke their fall, but at no small cost to her physical form. Moments later, her body disappeared in a cloud of orange smoke. Her gem fell safely into waiting hands and was soon bubbled once again.

“Guess you did remember, huh?” he muttered to the himself and the floating bubble in his palms. He flopped down in the dust and debris, the hot afternoon sun glaring down on the scene. “Well. That could’ve gone better.”

* * *

 For the past week he had made several attempts to connect with her – and all of them had been rather unsuccessful. Every day he came out to the desert Kindergarten to release the quartz from her bubble, and every day she would eventually poof herself in her repeated attempts to maul his face. Today was the first time that Jasper had not immediately pounced on him upon regenerating, and he was just optimistic enough to take that as a good sign.

“Easy, easy,” Steven crooned, holding his hands up to show he meant no harm.

He kept a fair distance from the Gem as she continued growling at him. She crouched low on her haunches, tail twitching pensively back and forth and staring intently at him. Staring as intently as someone without eyes could stare, at any rate. He could still see her face just before the corruption took over completely; that burning and desperate yellow gaze haunted his more guilt-ridden dreams lately.

He wondered how much she could remember of her pre-corruption life, wondered if she could even remember it at all. Maybe she was like Centipeetle and only held on to the feelings behind the memories. If that was true, then perhaps he could help her in the same way he had helped Centipeetle, too. Considering their encounters leading up to her corruption, however, he was not sure how much he wanted her to remember.

“We’ll figure it out,” he thought aloud as he perched on a rock opposite her. Jasper watched his every move and did not budge an inch from her position. Her growling had died down to an ominous rumbling, and his lips twitched in a tired and lopsided smile.

“There has to be a way to heal you; there’s gotta be. I just have to figure out how.” He glanced sheepishly at her. “Think you’ll ever let me take a look at your gem?”

“ _MAAAAAAAW!”_

“That’s fine, that’s fine! We can wait until you’re ready?”

“ _Grrr…”_

“Or never. Never works, too.”

* * *

 He remembered a story his dad had read to him when he was little. Steven had forgotten the exact details with the years, but he remembered a part about a boy and fox. The boy had slowly tamed the fox, and the fox had tamed him in turn until they were the best of friends. His thoughts tended to wander back to the same story every time he came to visit his own friend, though the relationship was admittedly one-sided.

“Connie’s doing pretty great, too,” he said, having an equally one-sided conversation with the desert air and Jasper. “She’s getting better with her sword fighting every day. Pearl says she might even be as good at it as Mom someday. Knowing Connie, though, that’ll probably happen sooner than anyone thinks.”

His legs kicked back and forth as he sat on the ledge of the canyon. Jasper lay a scarce few yards to his right. He was mindful to keep his voice light and easy and to not stare too long at his erstwhile companion. While he knew corrupted Gems were more than just mindless animals, Steven found the two were similar enough to help in his situation.

For her part, the beast only lay with her head between her paw-like hands. Her tail would occasionally thump on the ground and send up little clouds of dust. Otherwise she remained as relatively still and calm as she had for the past two months. She did not particular care for his company, but then she did not seem to dislike him enough to attack or just trot off.

Progress was slow, but it was progress all the same.

“And we’re getting even better fighting as Stevonnie!” he went on. His face lit up as he spread his arms. “This one time, we took down this _huuuge_ holo-Pearl with one swipe and—“ A moment later, though, his cheeks went red with chagrin. “Uh, yeah. Sorry for that time we beat you on the beach, by the way. No hard feelings about that, right?”

“Mrrmph…” Jasper chuffed back, her tail thumping a little harder. He found her moods difficult to read when she was not roaring or foaming at the mouth. Still, he allowed a hopeful grin to slide across his face.

“I’ll take that as a solid ‘maybe!’” he chirped.

* * *

 The Beta Kindergarten was the smaller of the two on Earth according to Peridot. It was still a sprawling labyrinth to Steven. As often as he visited Jasper’s birthplace and temporary home, there were a few places in the canyon he had yet to explore.

“Hello?” he called out, his voice echoing. Poking his head around one corner, he saw no sign of the orange Gem beast. “Yoohoo, anyone home? Huh, I wonder where she got off to…”

The possibility that she had finally decided to move on somewhere else crossed his mind. He knew that keeping her cooped up in one place against her will was wrong. The boy certainly would not have blamed her for wanting to go out and see the world beyond Kindergarten. So why did his heart still ache a little at the thought?

A quiet whimpering drew him out of his gloomy thoughts. His eyes flitted towards the right path of a fork in the canyon. Padding quietly forward, Steven walked around the bend to see just the Gem he had been looking for.

She was reared back on her cloven hooves with paws braced against the rock. His eyes traveled up further to see an old and worn mural painted on the canyon wall: the insignia of the Diamond Authority. Her paw pads scraped lightly against the lower pink section, and she whimpered mournfully once again.

Brows furrowed, it took Steven a few moments to understand what he was seeing. His face fell when he finally put two and two together.

“You really miss her, huh?” He came to stand beside her. One hand reached up to the gently brush the fur of her sides, trying to lend the former quartz soldier what comfort he could. “Kinda like how I miss _my_ mom...

“But it’s okay to be sad about it, y’know? And you don’t have to be alone, either. We could miss them together if you want.”

A few minutes later saw Jasper’s head laying heavily in his lap, heaving the occasional heavy-hearted sigh. Steven hummed softly as he scratched gently behind her horns and rubbed her snout. They stayed that way together beneath the mural for the rest of the day.

* * *

 Discretion, needless to say, was of the utmost importance in his covert visits with Jasper. He knew the others trusted him with more secrets lately and that his puppy dog eyes could sway them on a lot of issues. Still, he did not think Pearl or Amethyst would be too pleased to hear he had been visiting and handling a dangerous corrupted Gem on his own. And if Garnet had any ideas about where he snuck off to every other day, she kept them to herself.

The only downside: when he managed to get himself into trouble – which happened more often than not – he was largely on his own.

“Aw c’mon, that was my last left flip-flop!” he shouted as the lizard-like monster bit his red shoe to shreds. Instead of finding Jasper this morning, the boy had the bad luck of running into a huge frilled lizard of a corrupted Gem with a nasty temper and lots of pointy teeth.

That had nearly been his actual foot. His toes burned in the scorching sand as he braced himself for another attack. Steven’s shields were barely holding up under the lizard-like beast’s attacks. He was not sure how much longer he was going to last, and he would never be able to outrun the monster to the warp pad.

Slippery footing and one hard shove was all it took to send him sprawling on his back. The violet-colored corruption bore down upon him hissing and spitting. Steven cried out and shut his eyes tight as those wide jaws snapped towards him.

“ _RAAAAAH!_ ”

Jasper came barreling out of nowhere, muscles rippling and fangs flashing as she hit the other corrupted Gem squarely in the side. Pebbles and sand went flying as the two tangled with one another. The dust cloud became so thick that Steven could hardly make out the struggling Gems. Whenever he heard a pained yelp or howl, his heart stuttered.

_POOF!_

“Jasper!” Before he even realized what he was doing, he sprinted into the fray. He squinted hard through the flying sand, trying desperately to find the corrupted quartz or her Gem. If she had gotten hurt or worse, he would never forgive himself—

When he spied a familiar albeit scuffed-up set of teal bullhorns through the dust, he could not recall ever being so relieved. Steven all but threw himself sobbing against Jasper’s neck. The boy did not even stop to marvel at how she did not try to push him away or so much as growl at him. Nor did he seem to notice through his tears that she had pressed her nose against him, whining slightly and snuffling at him a gesture akin to concern.

“You’re okay,” he hiccupped, fingers twisting in her mane. “You’re okay. And- and you saved me? You… You…” His tears ran all the more freely at the realization, and to his companion’s confusion he only sobbed harder. Yet as battered and exhausted as he was, it was the happiest he had been in a long time.

* * *

 “ _If I could begin to do / Something that does right by you / I would do about anything / I would even learn how to love...”_

The last note echoed in the evening air, sweet and mellow yet incomplete. Steven stuck his tongue out as his nose scrunched up in thought. He sat up from where he had been laying against laying against Jasper’s paw. The corrupted Gem tilted her head to one side with a questioning cast.

“It’s this new song I’ve been writing,” he explained as he took a moment to tune the ukulele in his lap. “There’s still something missing there at the end, but I’m not sure what. Can’t tell if it’s just a word or a lyric or a whole ‘nother stanza I need to come up with.” The boy glanced up at her. “What do you think?”

“Mrrmph,” she rumbled noncommittally. Instead she pulled him closer with her paw. The corrupted Gem licked a warm and sloppy stripe across his face, slicking his curly back in the process and purring like the motor of his dad’s van.

“Eew!” he laughed, rubbing his head against her fuzzy chest. “You’re gross – and no help at all! Love you too, though.”

Stretching up, he leaned in to give a loving smooch to her nose. He beamed brightly up at her – but not nearly so bright as the sparkles around her gem and the orange glow that soon consumed her form. A soft gasp escaped him, his ukulele falling with a soft and hollow _thunk_ in the sand.

* * *

 

"Nggh... R- Rose?"

"No, Rose is my mom, remember?"

"... S- Steven?"

"Yeah! You got it!"

"Steven..."

"That's me! Welcome back, Jasper. Welcome home."


End file.
